Simon Belmont
Simon Belmont is the main protagonist of Castlevania and Castlevania II: Simon's Quest for NES. He also made an appearance as a playable character in Castlevania Judgment and Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. Simon is a renowned vampire hunter from the 17th century, and also the first and one of the most recognized of the heroes from the Castlevania series. Various incarnations of him have appeared in other games in the series. Besides appearances in the main series, Simon has also several cameos in other games from Konami. Appearance and Personality ''Castlevania'' Simon first debuted in Castlevania for the Nintendo Entertainment System. He wears a leather breast plate, tall boots, and a bandana. He is sometimes also depicted with a cape. Simon's hair color is brown on the cover art, contrary to the artwork from the Japanese instruction manual, in which it is red. This hair color would later carry on to Kojima's design of the character. ''Castlevania II: Simon's Quest'' In Castlevania II, Simon's barbaric design is dropped and he takes on a more knightly appearance. He wears red armor decorated with yellow engravings and pearls, shoulder plates and iron gloves. Furthermore, Simon also wears a belt with a pearl in the middle, black trousers, knee-guards, and long boots. His hair color is blond on the cover art and brown in the Japanese instruction manual. ''Castlevania Chronicles'' Simon's appearance in the artwork for Castlevania Chronicles was designed by Ayami Kojima. Although the design was not made for Castlevania or Castlevania II, it has been used several times to represent Simon's character from those two games. Castlevania: Harmony of Despair Original Soundtrack Cover Kojima's design is based on Simon's original appearance. Simon wears leather armor, long fingerless gloves, long boots and shorts. Over his life shoulder he wears part of a red vest with a fur edge. He also has a sword sheathed on his hip. Story ''Background'' Simon Belmont was the heir to the renowned Vampire Killer whip and of the Belmont clan and became the most famous vampire hunter.Castlevania Judgment manual. Konami. 2009. p.21. He was born around the year 1669.Castlevania Judgment. Press release bio. Simon grew up hearing stories of his great ancestors that who had defeated Dracula, along with those who helped them. As he trained in the ways of the whip, he would often wonder how he compared to these legendary warriors.Castlevania Judgment. Konami. 2009. Story mode. Simon Belmont. Opening prologue. He was rather brash and inclined to force his way through situations. ''Castlevania'' At the age of 22 in 1691, he would be given the opportunity to prove himself worthy of his family's legacy. On Easter Day, 100 years after he was defeated by Christopher Belmont, Count Dracula had returned. He was reawakened by a dark order of humans on Easter Day during a dark mass in an abandoned monastery. Simon was determined to end the threat of a new reign of terror, and entered Dracula's Castle alone to face the Count. Simon slew Dracula's servants and then faced off against Dracula himself as his ancestors had. Unable to kill him in the battle and unbeknown to Simon at the time, Dracula had managed to place a curse on a wound he inflicted on Simon's back. Akumajo Dracula instruction manual. Konami. 1986. p.4, 5, 6, 7. KDS-AKM. Dracula II Noroi no Fūin instruction manual. Konami. 1987. p. 4. 5. 6. 7. KDS-DRK. ''Castlevania II: Simon's Quest'' The curse that Dracula had placed upon Simon 7 years ago slowly began to ravage his body. He began to think that his death was near. One night, six years after he returned from the time rift, he was contemplating his situation at his family's cemetary. Suddenly, a mysterious woman appeared behind Simon standing in the morning mist. She explained to him that this feeling he had was due to a curse that Dracula had placed on him and that his life was in real danger. In order to be free of this curse, he would have to collect Dracula's remains - his nail, heart, rib bone, eyeball, and ring, and burn them all in the ruins of Dracula's castle. While this would defeat him for the time being, she warned him that even this might not be enough to defeat Dracula forever. She then vanished within the mist as mysteriously as she had appeared. Simon resolved to take up this challenge and began his new quest. The land had once again become infested with monsters and the villagers would board up their houses at night and hide from the creatures that would take over their towns. Some villagers, perhaps grateful to be able to help the man who had saved their land from Dracula years earlier, assisted Simon on his quest by offering him advice on where to go next. Others did so for the money and items he would give them in exchange for their goods. Other villagers, perhaps fearful that Dracula's return would be hastened if Simon was successful in gathering his remains, would refuse to help him or offered him misleading information. Simon was able to find each of the remains that had been gathered by Dracula's servants and placed in their strongholds in various mansions throughout the land. He returned to the site of the ruins of Dracula's castle, which was abandoned by humans and monsters alike, and placed his remains there. However, through the power of a sixth body piece, the fang, Dracula was revived. Simon managed to defeat him a second time. This time, he burned his remains and his curse was lifted. He buried what was left of Dracula in a graveyard. He was forever remembered for his bravery. Dracula II: Noroi no Fuuin Kanzen Hisshōbon. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. Konami. 1988. Ending. Sub-Weapons ''Castlevania'' ''Castlevania II: Simon's Quest'' Other Appearances ''Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance'' The original NES Castlevania version of Simon Belmont is able to participate in the Boss Rush mode of Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance. ''Castlevania Judgement'' Galamoth plots to send the Time Reaper from 10,000 years in the future into the past to destroy his rival Dracula, and change history. A man named Aeon discovers this and pulls together champions from different eras of history into a dimensional rift, in order to find a chosen one capable of destroying Galamoth's servant, the Time Reaper. Simon is one of these warriors. Despite having already beaten Dracula a year ago, Simon remains troubled. He is uncertain if he was able to accomplish this with his own strength or with the strength provided by his whip. Simon wears a black vest and pants with a silver lining and a golden symnbol of a cross at his back. Following Kojima's artwork, Simon has red hair. he also wears slightly armored arm guards and boots with black and silver lining with small cross motives on some parts of the armor. Simon's theme in Judgement is Vampire Killer. ''Castlevania: Harmony of Despair'' The Grimoire is a magical book that records the history of Dracula's castle. A memory of Simon is recorded in this book. Certain individuals find themselves trapped in the Grimoire and borrow the powers of the heroes which are recorded in the book in order to find a way out. Simon appears, in his 8-bit version, as a bonus downloadable character. He's using the Vampire Killer and subweapons to fight his enemies. Non-Castlevania Appearances ''Hai No Majutsushi'' Hai No Majutsushi is a mahjong game that was released only in Japan for the MSX2 in which eight Konami mascots are included. Simon is not playable in this game. Instead, you can pick him as one of the three opponents against whom you want to play. It is said in the game that after Simon defeated Dracula, he became a pervert. ''Ganbare Goemon Gaiden 2: Tenka no Zaihō'' In this RPG game on the Famicom, Simon Belmont is a recruitable character. He is met by the party when it arrives in Europe. In combat, he can use a Holy Water ability. ''Wai Wai World 2'' Wai Wai World 2: SOS! Parsley Castle is the sequel to Konami Wai Wai World. The main character is a robot named Rickle who has to rescue the princess of Konami World. Unlike the previous game, Rickle does not rescue other characters; rather, he has the ability to transform into three other Konami heroes via power-ups, determined at random at the beginning of the game. One of these heroes is Simon, who controls like he did on the original game, though without his Cross. Simon is nearly invincible, but can only be played as for a limited amount of time before reverting to Rickle. ''Contra: Hard Corps'' Simon makes an appearance as a secret boss in the Hard Corps entry of Konami's Contra series. In it, if the player climbs the wall before the door to the boss of stage 3, they will be invited to participate in arena fights, the first opponent being Simon, entering by first destroying a candle in the middle and grabbing the subweapon that drops from it. Simon's appearance is very different in this game, sporting sunglasses and a large afro with a guitar on his back. He uses the Vampire Killer, which seems to extend from the inside of his arm, and also a fish as a subweapon, which functions in the same way as the Cross. Once the player damages him enough, his head explodes and reveals wires, possibly suggesting him to be an android. After he has been defeated, a large amount of the fish sub-weapon gushes out of his neck and he explodes. The theme song used for this battle is a techno version of Vampire Killer called 'Simon 1994RD'. The Simon portrayed in this game is a mixture of Simon Belmont and Simon Masato, a Japanese singer, and the fish sub-weapon is an allusion to one of Masato's famous songs, "Oyoge Taiyaki-kun", with "taiyaki" being a fish-shaped Japanese cake. ''Battle Tryst'' Battle Tryst is a rare arcade game released in 1997. It was intended to have cameo roles for Simon Belmont and Richter Belmont, but these were canceled. They are still playable, but they are known as Shemon and Rehter. ''DMTV: World Fighters'' Dream Mix TV: World Fighters is also one of Konami's mascot-themed games, but characters from other companies (Hudson Soft, Takara and Red Entertainment) are also included. One of these characters is Simon (his appearance is based on how he is portrayed in Castlevania Chronicles), and he fights with his traditional whip ans cross sub-weapon. Simon can use his whip for basic attacks and combos, while his cross is used for three different special attacks (He can throw it forward, upward, or in a circle). This game also includes two Castlevania stages (based on a typical main-hall). In both stages "Bloody Tears" plays in the background. ''New International Track and Field'' New International Track and Field is an Olympic-sports game released for the Nintendo DS. The game puts normal competitors and Konami icons against each other in certain events (100-meter dash, the 110-meter hurdle, bicycling, long-jumping, swimming, archery, the shot put, pole-vaulting, sprinting, gymnastics, javelin-throwing, high-jumping, etc.). There is also an archery event known as "Belmont's challenge," where you must shoot bats to gain points and a chance to destroy the planks that cover the windows, to let sunlight in and destroy Dracula. The music that plays is yet, another version of Vampire Killer. Trivia *''Castlevania: Judgment'', for the Nintendo Wii, marks Simon's third appearance in a 3D fighting game, after his bouts in Battle Tryst and DreamMix TV: World Fighters. Like many of the other playable characters, Simon is also able to use his traditional sub-weapons in the game. *Keith Silverstein, Simon's English voice actor, also did the voice of Albus in Order of Ecclesia. *The original concept behind 2010 series reboot Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was to remake the original Castlevania starring Simon. While this idea was ultimately not followed through, Lords of Shadows' protagonist, Gabriel Belmont, wears armour which is reminiscent of Simon's artwork and sprite from Simon's Quest. Lords of Shadow developer David Cox mentioned in an interview that Gabriel is wearing armour similar to Simon's. This is presumably a reference to Gabriel being the first main character of a new Castlevania series, as Simon was of the original franchise. * Simon Belmont was the protagonist of Paul Anderson's original script of Castlevania: The Movie. Several rewrites of this script have taken place and it is not known if he will make an appearance in the final cut. References External links * de:Simon Belmont Simon Belmont Category:Castlevania I Characters Category:Ganbare Goemon 2 Category:Harmony of Dissonance Characters Category:Judgment Characters Category:Playable Characters Category:Simon's Quest Characters Category:Vampire Hunters Category:Worlds of Power Characters